Value Institute study reveals need for more research on team-based rounds

Value Institute study reveals need for more research on team-based rounds

Vijaya Surekha Bhamidipati, M.D.
Vijaya Surekha Bhamidipati, M.D.

While team-based rounds are largely viewed by health professionals as an effective way to improve patient care, a Christiana Care-led analysis recently published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that there is a dearth of evidence in medical literature that reveals the outcomes of these kinds of rounds.

“On its surface, team-based rounds make sense, but our study shows that we have yet to know the true impact of these rounds on important care measures such as patient outcomes and patient experience,” said lead study author Surekha Bhamidipati, M.D., a hospitalist with Christiana Care Hospitalist Partners and a scholar with Christiana Care’s Value Institute. “This is not to say that these rounds aren’t important. Rather, we want to encourage researchers and providers to more thoughtfully design team-based rounds so they can measure their value.”

Future team-based rounds – also known as interdisciplinary rounds – should be designed to ensure the most appropriate health professionals are participating in the rounds and should include discussions amongst the rounding team on patient outcomes and patient participation, Bhamidipati said.

In a review of 22 studies, the authors found that there was no clear definition of team-based rounds, which are a patient-centered model of care where different disciplines come together to coordinate care and is becoming a standard of care for U.S. hospital patients.

In addition, there was a wide variation in both the design and team composition of these rounds. While there was some data that showed improvements in length of stay and staff satisfaction from these rounds, there was a lack of data to show the effect on patient safety and patient experience. Various types of team-based rounds were analyzed during the study.

“We believe standardization is key for both the design of these rounds, and for the taxonomy of these studies, in order to advance this field of research,” added Dr. Bhamidipati, a hospitalist with Christiana Care Hospitalist Partners, which specializes in the care of hospitalized patients at Christiana Hospital and helps to coordinate the care for patients once they are admitted to the time they are discharged.

Dr. Bhamidipati conducted the study as a scholar in Christiana Care’s Value Institute, which was established in 2011 to embed population-based research expertise in an independent academic health system, creating a unique institution that conducts real-world research on today’s most pressing health care issues through collaborations among researchers, patients, health care providers and policymakers.

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